Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NMRI), also referred to as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) provides ways of imaging various objects, including organic objects, such as the human body, noninvasively. NMRI relies on strong magnetic fields that align the spins of atomic nuclei, such as the nuclei of hydrogen atoms present in water, in the object being studied. The resulting rotating magnetic field created by the atoms in response to the applied magnetic field may allow for an image of the internal structure of the object being studied to be created.
In NMRI, when the magnetic field is applied to the object being studied, the atoms of the object may remain in an aligned state for several hundred microseconds or longer. This may allow enough time for a magnetic field to be applied to the object under study, the source of the magnetic field to be deactivated, and the resulting rotating magnetic field created by the atoms of the object under study to be detected and measured.
One characteristic of NMRI which may be considered a drawback is that a large amount of power may be necessary in order to produce the necessary magnetic fields to align the spin of the nuclei of the atoms of the object under study. For example, an MRI machine found in a medical setting, such as a hospital, may consume more than one kilowatt of power when the MRI machine is active.